Audible confirmation using text to speech conversion

Abstract

An audible confirmation system automatically and seamlessly outputs an audible name of a call recipient to a calling party. This audible confirmation system is preferably configured to audibly identify the call recipient to the calling party prior to the call recipient and the calling party communicating with each other. The audible confirmation system preferably includes a text to speech converter coupled to an intelligent network architecture having at least one calling name database. The audible confirmation system allows the calling party to audibly identify the call recipient to the calling party without any input from the call recipient and without using any special equipment such as a display screen by the calling party. The audible confirmation system is especially useful when the call recipient does not have voice mail service and is not available to receive a call. For example, by utilizing the audible confirmation system, the calling party is able to confirm the identity of the call recipient prior to leaving a confidential message for the call recipient by utilizing the calling party's voice mail delivery system for automatically delivering the confidential message to the call recipient.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An audible confirmation system in an Intelligent Network for allowing a calling party to audibly hear an audible name of a call recipient, the audible confirmation system comprising:
 a. a database configured for storing a plurality of text names wherein each of the plurality of text names is associated with a unique identifier; 
 b. a signal control point coupled to the database, the signal control point independent of and configured to control a call routing path and independent of and configured to control a data path between the calling party, the database, and a text to speech converter, and configured to control the retrieval of a select one of the plurality of text names in response to a call initiated by the calling party directed to the unique identifier, wherein the database is independent of the call routing path; and 
 c. the text to speech converter coupled to the control point and configured to convert the selected one of the plurality of text names into the audible name. 
 
     
     
       2. The audible confirmation system according to  claim 1  wherein the unique identifier is a telephone number. 
     
     
       3. The audible confirmation system according to  claim 1  wherein the database is a calling name database. 
     
     
       4. A method of allowing a calling party to audibly identify a call recipient, the method comprising the following steps:
 a. initiating a call from the calling party directed to an identifier belonging to the call recipient; 
 b. matching the identifier to a text name corresponding to the recipient within a database by a signal control point independent of and configured to control a call routing path and independent of and configured to control a data path between the calling party, the database, and a text to speech converter wherein the database in independent of the call routing path; 
 c. retrieving the text name of the recipient from the database; 
 d. converting the text name of the call recipient to an audible name; and 
 e. audibly playing the audible name of the call recipient to the calling party prior to connecting the call. 
 
     
     
       5. The method according to  claim 4  wherein the identifier is a telephone number belonging to the call recipient. 
     
     
       6. The method according to  claim 4  wherein the database is a name calling database. 
     
     
       7. The method according to  claim 4  further comprising automatically re-dialing the call recipient if the call cannot be connected. 
     
     
       8. The method according to  claim 7  further comprising leaving the call recipient a pre-recorded message from the calling party. 
     
     
       9. A method of allowing a calling party to audibly identify a call recipient, wherein the method comprising the following steps:
 a. pre-recording a voice message by the calling party directed toward an identifier belonging to the call recipient; 
 b. matching the identifier to a text name corresponding to the call recipient by a signal control point independent of and configured to control a call routing path and independent of and configured to control a data path between the calling party, a database, and a text to speech converter, wherein the identifier and the text name are stored within the database, further wherein the database is independent of the call routing path; 
 c. converting the text name of the call recipient to an audible name; 
 d. audibly playing the audible name of the recipient to the calling party; and 
 e. audibly delivering the voice message to the call recipient subsequent to audibly playing the audible name to the calling party. 
 
     
     
       10. The method according to  claim 9  wherein the database is a name calling database. 
     
     
       11. The method according to  claim 9  wherein the database contains a plurality of identifiers and a corresponding plurality of text names. 
     
     
       12. The method according to  claim 9  wherein the identifier is a telephone number belonging to the call recipient. 
     
     
       13. The method according to  claim 9  further comprising locating the database which contains the identifier and the text name belonging to the recipient among a plurality of databases. 
     
     
       14. The method according to  claim 9  further comprising automatically re-dialing the call recipient if a call for delivering the voice message to the call recipient cannot be connected.